Ryu Lee
|birth_place = Tala, Jalisco, Mexico |Death date= |Death place = |Resides = |Family = |names = Dragon Lee Ryu Lee |height= |weight= |billed = |trainer = Alfredo Pineda Franco Colombo Pierrothito Pit Bull I Arturo Muñoz |debut = January 1, 2014 |retired = }} Ryu Lee (born May 15, 1995 in Tala, Jalisco, Mexico) is a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler currently working for the Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling, where is a one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. Lee's real name is not a matter of public record, as is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico where their private lives are kept a secret from the wrestling fans. Since his debut, Lee worked under the ring name Dragon Lee 'for promotions such as NJPW and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), before being fired by CMLL in 2019. Professional wrestling career New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2017–present) On January 5, 2017, Dragon Lee made a surprise return to NJPW, attacking Hiromu Takahashi (the former Kamaitachi) and Tetsuya Naito during their match against KUSHIDA and Michael Elgin. Following the match, Dragon Lee posed with Takahashi's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship belt. This led to Lee unsuccessfully challenging Takahashi for the title on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka. The following May, Dragon Lee realized one of his goals in professional wrestling, when he was announced as a participant in the Best of the Super Juniors 24 tournament. In his opening match of the tournament on May 17, Dragon Lee handed rival Hiromu Takahashi his first singles loss since returning to Japan at the end of 2016. On May 7, NJPW announced Lee as a participant in the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished his block with a record of three wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals. On April 6, 2019 at G1 Supercard, Lee defeated Taiji Ishimori and Bandido in a three-way match to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time, In the process, he became the third Mexican wrestler to hold the title behind Juventud Guerrera and Mistico. Lee participated in the 2019 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where he finished with seven wins and two losses. On June 9, Lee lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Will Ospreay. On August 22, Lee, representing CMLL, entered the 2019 Super J-Cup, defeating CHAOS's Yoh in his first round match. On August 24, Lee defeated NJPW's Ryusuke Taguchi in the second round. On August 26, Lee defeated fellow CMLL representative Carístico in the semifinals, before losing to reigning British Cruiserweight Champion El Phantasmo in the finals of the tournament. He returned to the promotion on December 8, in a pre-tapped vingette anouncing that he would rename himself to Ryu Lee, while also challenging Jushin Thunder Liger to a match at the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome, on January 5, 2020. At the second night of the event on January 5, Lee teamed with his rival Hiromu Takahashi in a winning effort against Liger and Naoki Sano on Liger's retirement match. Personal life The man known under the ring name Dragon Lee was born on May 15, 1995, in Tala, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, son of professional wrestler Arturo Muñoz, who had worked as Toro Blanco, Poder Boriqua, Poder Mexico and Comandante Pierroth over the years. Dragon Lee's two older brothers grew up to become professional wrestlers as well, with the oldest of the brothers, William, making his wrestling debut in 2008 and would later become known as "Rush". Another of Dragon Lee's brothers, Carlos, became a professional wrestler in 2011, adopting the enmascarado (masked) character Dragon Lee initially. In 2012 the original Dragon Lee was offered the opportunity to take over the Místico character after the original wrestler under the Místico mask left Mexico. It was public knowledge that Dragon Lee had taken over the Místico character, leaving the mask and character of Dragon Lee behind. Dragon Lee's uncles are also professional wrestlers, known as Franco Colombo, Pit Bull I and Pit Bull II and all had a hand in training Dragon Lee prior to his professional wrestling debut. At the age of 14 his father took him to Mexico City to start training in amateur wrestling, participating in several wrestling events. He would also participate in boxing but, as Dragon Lee recalls in an 2015 interview, during his first match he performed a Suplex (a wrestling throw) on his opponent and was disqualified. At that point he realized that his future was in Lucha Libre. In wrestling *'''Finishing moves **''Desnucadora'' (Vertical suplex powerbomb) **''Dragon Driver'' (Bridging package fallaway powerbomb) **''Rodilla Dragon (Running Knee Strike to the face of a seated opponent) *'Signature moves''' **Running frankensteiner, sometimes while jumping over the top rope to an opponent standing on the apron **Topé suicida **Topé con hilo *'Nicknames' **"El Niño Maravilla" (Spanish for "The Wonder Boy") Championships and accomplishments *'Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre' **CMLL World Welterweight Championship (1 time) **CMLL World Lightweight Championship (2 times) **CMLL Family Tag Team Tournament (2019) - with Mistico *'New Japan Pro Wrestling' ** IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' **PWI ranked him #'250' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 *'Ring of Honor' **ROH World Television Championship (1 time, current) *''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' **Rookie of the Year (2014) Luchas de Apuestas record References External links * Category:Wrestlers Category:Gaijin Category:NJPW Roster Category:Taguchi Japan